The invention relates to a disc changer, comprising a frame, a cassette holder having a positioning surface for a cassette comprising a plurality of supports having a supporting surface for a disc, in particular an optical disc, means for moving said supports into and out of the cassette, and retaining means for retaining a disc outside the cassette.
Such a disc changer is employed in the disc player disclosed in European Patent Application 0,217,393. This conventional disc player comprises a cassette holder which is fixedly arranged in the frame to receive a cassette suitable for one or more optical discs, in particular Compact Discs. This disc player further comprises a device for playing an optical disc, which device comprises a turntable for rotating the optical disc, and an electro-optical unit for optically scanning the disc. The turntable and the electro-optical unit are secured to a sub-frame which is movable relative to the frame. If the cassette in the cassette holder accommodates a plurality of discs this enables a disc which is situated on the turntable during use of the disc player to be replaced automatically by another optical disc. For this purpose the conventional disc changer comprises a mechanism for moving the sub-frame, enabling the turntable and the electro-optical unit to be brought into a position which is related to the position of the selected disc to be scanned.
A drawback of the prior art construction is that to place an optical disc onto the turntable a very vulnerable and essential part, namely the electro-optical unit, must be moved to a level corresponding to the level of the disc to be scanned. The continual movement of the electro-optical unit is likely to give rise to malfunctioning. Moreover, such a construction requires additional provisions for the electrical connections to the movably arranged playing device. Another drawback is that additional and hence cost-raising measures must be taken in order to guarantee well defined playing positions of the movable turntable.